He added to His Church

This past week and again tomorrow, we are doing medical clinics in poor villages. We do this kind of ministry for several reasons. (1) Because the Lord did it in His ministry. (2) Because the people have many health problems and meeting the need shows our love for them. (3) Because it gives the pastors a good opportunity to meet and talk with people, who will often welcome him into their homes thereafter (4) Because once the people have stepped inside the church and met some of the believers, it is easier for them to join a worship service. We do distribute evangelistic tracts and the pastors pray with many who are open to that, for their health issues. We do not normally preach or give an invitation, trusting the spiritual results to come slowly,probably after we are packed up and gone. Today, my partner casually shared with me that a family has been added to the church in the place where we held a clinic a week ago. "Really?" I thought. "That is wonderful." I listened attentively to everything he said about it. The family were or are Hindus. They came to the clinic to see the doctor, and the pastor spent some time with them and prayed. They asked questions and expressed a desire to follow Jesus. They returned today to join the worship. "Wow. That is the reason we are doing this," I thought and I started thinking of ways to share it in a report to folks in the US. I wanted to ask (but did not) how many individuals were in the family. To Americans, "family" usually means two adult and 2-3 kids, but here in Nepal, the word, "family", might mean grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins. How many people can we count? This shows the benefit of the medical project to this who help us with the funding. I wondered why my partner did not seem quite as excited as I was. Of course, he was pleased, but he was not going to add these people to any list or "count" for his record. Why not? (1) Because interest does not equate to a new regenerated believer. We need to wait to see if the seed grows or if it gets plucked away or drys up in the sun. (2) Because this is not an uncommon event for the partner. He works and he sees God give an increase (3) Because even if the family is ten people, all saved and faithful and growing, my partner is not going to claim credit for it. Acts 2:47. The Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.